NYC NOW - Midday News: Costs Rise for NYC Affordable Housing, Sugar Warnings Take Effect, and New Jersey Governor’s Race Tightens

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

A new report finds expenses are climbing sharply for owners of low-income apartments across New York City even as rising rents and affordability dominate the mayor’s race. Meanwhile, chain restaurants are beginning to post new labels warning customers about high-sugar items under new city health rules.  Also, a  jury has convicted one former correction officer and acquitted two others in the 2024 killing of prisoner Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility. Plus, with two weeks until Election Day, New Jersey’s race for governor between Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill remains neck and neck. Historian Kristoffer Shields, director of the Eagleton Center on the American Governor at Rutgers University, joins us for this week’s Campaign Catch Up.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Tuesday, October 21st. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. The high cost of housing for tenants has come to dominate the New York City mayor's race, but the new report finds expenses are soaring for owners of low-income apartments as well. WNMIC's David Brand reports. The Affordable Housing Investor Enterprise Communists, partners analyzed expenses for more than 37,000 apartments receiving government funds and financing.

They found average owner costs increased by 40% since 2017. But the report's authors say the solution is not to raise rents. Instead, they're calling on the city and state government to issue more rental assistance and funding for repairs and other costs. They also propose strategies to curb a sharp spike in insurance. Some landlords have recently formed a collective, where members pool resources to ensure themselves. Sugar warnings are popping up on fast food menus across New York City as restaurants come into compliance with new city rules. DeBla-N-Mise-Caroline Lewis reports.

The warning label consists of a spoon heaped with sugar, suspended in a black pyramid. Restaurants with at least 15 locations are supposed to place the symbol next to certain menu items with more than 50 grams of added sugar, the amount recommended for an entire day. New York City is the first jurisdiction in the country to require the warnings, and public health researchers will be studying whether they help steer consumers toward healthier choices. The City Health Department says, for now, it's educating restaurants about the new rules, but we'll start issuing fines for violations next year. 63 and sunny now, sunny and 67 for a high today with a light wind. Sh showers likely overnight, low into mid-50s than tomorrow, slim chance of late morning shower, sunshadow. shot in 64. Stay close. There's more after the break.

Juries in Oneida County say only one of the three former guards are in trial for the beating death of prisoner Robert Brooks is guilty. WNIC's Jimmy Veilkhan has more on the split verdict. Both activists and the families of the three corrections officers on trial packed a courtroom in Utica as the verdict was read Monday morning. Jurors spent more than two days considering murder and other charges against David Kingsley, Matthew Gallowher, and Nicholas Kiefer. Rosemary Rivera is a leader of the end prison violence campaign. She recalled when the jury revealed it found Kingsley guilty, but the mood quickly changed. You hear the sign of relief, and then the other two verdicts were read, that they were not guilty on all counts. I mean, all I felt was this heat rising.

Prosecutors charged 10 people in connection with the Brooks death last year. They played footage from body-worn cameras that showed guards punching and kicking Brooks in the infirmary of the Marcy Correctional Facility. Six other men have already pleaded guilty to manslaughter and other charges. Special prosecutor Bill Fitzpatrick says Kingsley and three other guards who already pleaded guilty were most responsible for Brooks's death. Farina, Anzalone, Walrith, and now Kingsley. All four of those people will be going to be going.

and stay prison for double digits. Defense lawyers said it was unfair to lump all the guards together. Kevin Louis Brand represents Matthew Gallowher, who was found not guilty. Louis Brand says the video footage showed his client was out of the room when other officers struck Brooks. When you look at Matthew Gallowher's conduct, he was not one of the bad guys. And he is right to be judged based upon his conduct, not a room of conduct. Kingsley faces at least 15 years behind bars.

Jimmy Vielkind, WNYC News. New Jersey voters cast our ballots for the next governor of the state in just more than 14 days. Polls shown an extremely tight race between Republican nominee, Jack Chitorelli, and Democratic Representative, Mikey Sherrill. To keep up with it all, we're bringing you campaign catch-up. Our quick, weekly look at the latest. Historian Christopher, Christopher, Shield, is the director of the Eagleton Center

on the American governor at Rutgers University. Chris, polling continues to show the race extremely close with Cheryl holding a seven-point lead depending on which poll you think of. Would you talk about how turnout is going to affect this race given a slim margin between the two candidates? Yeah, and I think it's probably even closer than those top-line numbers in the poll suggests.

So I think we're all expecting this to continue to be a volatile and unpredictable race. race and really close in the end, which means that it really is all about turnout. When push comes to show what that turnout model looks like, whether it's like last years or a more traditional democratic turnout model in New Jersey is probably going to be what ultimately makes the difference in this race. So I think as we head into this home stretch here, the turnout really is the key word, the most important word that we can use and will continue to use as we look at how this race is

going to go. Chris, why do you think it's closer than the poll show? You know, if you look at the top line numbers, they've all been showing, they've been sort of coalescing around a five to seven point lead for Mikey Cheryl. But if you get below those numbers, you see some things that are probably encouraging actually for Jack Chittarelli. You know, we're saying the turnout is so important. What drives turnout is voter enthusiasm. And some of those voter enthusiasm numbers, we've seen in some of these polls that they're a little bit higher on the Republican side than they are on the Democratic side.

So, you know, the challenge for the pollsters always is trying to predict what the voting population is going to look like. And I think that there are some signals that it could be more Republican than they're expecting, which would be good news for Jack Chedarelli and could bump that down to even like a two or three point race. And what do you think is causing, from your estimation, more enthusiasm on the Republican side than the Democratic side? I mean, that's really what the question comes down to is where the enthusiasm is. And it's an interesting race that the trends are interesting because, you know, New Jersey is one of only two states to do the gubernatorial race the year after the presidential race. And usually that means that the party that loses the presidential is a little bit more motivated, is a little bit more engaged in the race, which this year would be the Democrats. Part of the challenge this year, though, is that Democrats, there's, in the national level, at least, there's been some infighting amongst the Democratic Party itself. So there's some question as to whether that enthusiasm is there for Democrats.

But I will say that, you know, Mikey Cheryl as a strong connection with the state Democratic Party, and they have a really good sort of voter turnout machine in New Jersey. So that would be the good news for Mikey Cheryl here is that they may well be able to sort of get their voters to the polls, which may be ultimately what this comes down to. And Chris, what difference do you think independent voters are likely going to make here? New Jersey has a large number of independent voters. Yeah, independent voters are really important. unaffiliated voters are really important in New Jersey always.

There are more registered Democrats than Republicans in New Jersey. That's why it's so crucial for Jack Chattarelli to have to have high turnout amongst Republicans. But really for a Republican to win the governorship in New Jersey, which does happen fairly often. We think of New Jersey as a blue state, but at the governor's level, it really is sort of back and forth between Democrats and Republicans. But generally, the successful model for a Republican in New Jersey has been, yes, solid turnout, but also, winning a strong percentage, if not a majority of the unaffiliated voters. So as we sort of come down the stretch here, we've seen the sides coalesce well over 90%. I think over 95% of Republicans supporting Chittarelli, over 95% of Democrats supporting Mikey

Cheryl. Those lines have sort of been drawn. So what really matters now is who can appeal to those middle voters, who can appeal to the unaffiliated voters, get them to the polls, and actually get them to vote for their candidate. Because it really is, For Jack Chitorelli to have a chance, he probably needs a pretty strong percentage of those voters. So a good defense for Mikey Sherrill would be to pick up as many independent voters as she possibly can. And, Chris, are the attacks, the main attacks, are they having any impact on the electorate? For instance, Cheryl accusing Chittarelli is spreading misinformation about opioids, Chitarelli attacking Cheryl's time at the Naval Academy.

Any of those attacks having any kind of an impact on the electorate? You know, it's hard to say, it's hard to quite. I think it's not a coincidence that Mikey Cheryl has attacked Jack Cheddarlli's business and his business background, and that Jack Chatterale has attacked Mikey Sherrill's service background because those are the parts of their bios that are most appealing to voters. So I think they're trying to muddy the waters a little bit on each other in terms of those backgrounds. Whether it's working or not, broadly, I don't think it'll have a huge effect.

I think that voters are largely focused on some of the national issues, but especially the New Jersey issues, the affordability issues, affordable housing, utility costs, energy, the things that we've been talking about, the things we've been talking about throughout the entire race. But where this could have an impact is on some of those few undecided voters that are left. So that's a place where the margins could make a difference. And then also, again, talking about turnout, just in terms of rallying their own side to get to the polls.

And when we're talking about a race this close, even if it's having a small effect, that could end up being a really important effect. Christopher Shields directs the Eagleton Center on the American Governor. Chris, thank you so much. My pleasure. Anytime. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a day,

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